HP, Microsoft Launch 'Vblock Killer' VM System

HP VirtualSystem for Microsoft, a similarly integrated, preconfigured IT system aimed at cloud computing workloads, is now in the virtual boxing ring with Cisco-EMC-VMware Vblocks.

When three industry giants--Cisco Systems (networking), EMC (storage) and VMware (virtualization) formed the Virtual Computing Environment joint venture called Acadia in November 2009 to build Vblock virtualized data center systems, well-informed industry folks knew it was only a matter of time before another Tier 1 IT company or two stepped up to compete.

That came to pass this week, with longtime partners Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft announcing on Oct. 18 the HP VirtualSystem for Microsoft.

Vblocks are preintegrated, preconfigured computing systems consisting of networkware from Cisco, storage/security/system management from EMC and virtualization software from VMware. The resulting cloud computing systems range in size from a few hundred virtual machines to more than 6,000, depending upon the needs of the customer.

HP VirtualSystem for Microsoft, a similarly integrated, preconfigured IT system aimed at cloud computing workloads, is now in the virtual boxing ring with Vblocks.

In simplest terms, the Vblocks and the HP VirtualSystem for Microsoft are about as close as one can get to plug-and-play data centers. Hardware, networking and software is preconfigured for various use cases, applications are preintegrated, and access management and security controls are preset. It's not precisely turnkey, but it's pretty close.

"We've brought together core elements of our converged infrastructure--servers, storage, networking--and wrapped it up with our integrated management stack and Microsoft SystemCenter, and are delivering two distinct solutions from Microsoft," Carlat said. "These are turnkey-configured and factory shipped from HP.

"Our blades, with 2TB of memory, really allow us to drop more VMs onto a given host--we think about 2 times that of what Cisco can do. In networking, with our VirtualConnect, we've embedded 10Gb NICs (network interface cards) into our servers. This is boding well for providing much more aggregated bandwidth for the virtual infrastructure. This is a huge step up from what Cisco's Vblock is offering."

HP VirtualSystem for Microsoft is built on the same architecture as HP CloudSystem, enabling clients to deploy private, public or hybrid cloud environments. It also aligns with Microsoft's Private Cloud Fast Track specification for standardized deployments.